The search for three kidnapped Israeli teenagers who went missing in the West Bank is being accompanied by #BringBackOurBoys, a social media campaign that has quickly gone viral.

Inspired by the campaign that brought attention to the plight of a large group of abducted Nigerian schoolgirls (who still remain captive), the efforts are putting pressure on American, Israeli, and Palestinian politicians to work to secure the release of the teenage boys, who disappeared while hitchhiking last week — a situation complicated by the fact that more than one group has claimed responsibility.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly placed the blame on the terrorist group Hamas and ordered an arrest operation in the West Bank, where the boys are believed to be held. The crisis also prompted the first conversation between Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in over a year. (Abbas condemned both the abduction and the assertive Israeli efforts to find the captors.)

The abduction has galvanized the Israeli public, bringing together the normally fractious segments of the population for rallies and prayer sessions. On Sunday, an estimated 25,000 Israelis gathered in Jerusalem for one such prayer rally.

According to Palestinian news, the Israelis have kidnapped a further 370 Palestinians, bringing the total number of Palestinians being held by Israel to a hair over 7000, none of whom had anything to do with this counter-kidnapping.

I can't find any western media picking up the story, so take it with a grain of salt.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military found the bodies of three missing teenagers on Monday just over two weeks after they were abducted in the West Bank — a grim discovery that ended a frantic search that led to Israel's largest ground operation in the Palestinian territory in nearly a decade and drew Israeli threats of retaliation.

"Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed, referring to the Islamic militant group that Israel has accused of carrying out the kidnappings.

The teenagers "were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by human animals," the Israeli leader said as he convened an emergency meeting of his Security Cabinet.

The three-hour session ended after midnight without any decisions, and officials were expected to resume deliberations on Tuesday.

The episode has put Netanyahu in a difficult position. With a public enraged over the deaths, the Israeli leader has widespread support to strike Hamas. But after a two-week crackdown against the group, he could have a tough time finding new targets. He is also facing international calls for restraint.

Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, disappeared June 12 while hitchhiking home from the Jewish seminaries where they were studying near the West Bank city of Hebron. Despite the dangers, hitchhiking is common among Israelis traveling in and out of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

In an operation codenamed "Brother's Keeper," Israel dispatched thousands of troops across the West Bank in search of the youths, closed roads in the Hebron area and arrested some 400 Hamas operatives throughout the territory. The search ended Monday afternoon with the discovery of the bodies under a pile of rocks in a field north of Hebron.

Israel has identified two well-known Hamas operatives from Hebron as the primary suspects. The men, Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisheh, remain on the run, and military officials said the search for them would continue.

The search for the teens became a national obsession. Israeli media delivered round-the-clock updates, top officials held daily televised briefings and Israelis held prayer vigils. The mothers of the three teens became public figures as they campaigned for their sons' return, at one point traveling to Geneva to address the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

News of their deaths prompted an outpouring of grief late Monday. Large crowds of supporters rushed to the homes of the families in the central Israeli towns of Nof Ayalon and Elad, and the West Bank settlement of Talmon, while supporters lit memorial candles and prayed.

Large crowds gathered in Tel Aviv's central Rabin Square, and at the West Bank junction where the youths were abducted, singing songs, praying and lighting candles shaped in the names of the youths or the Jewish Star of David.

Obviously that's quite concerning. It'd be even more concerning if I trusted Netanyahu as far as I could throw him. I doubt this is Hamas' doing. It may well be an organised gang, of which there are hundreds in the West Bank. Of course, the counter-kidnapping of four hundred Palestinians by the IDF is certainly Israel's doing. Always escalate. That's the solution, right guys?

How about reach out to each other in love & forgiveness, burying the hatchet, Palestinians welcomed by Israelis as equal citizens & regarding The Holyland as equally Israeli & Palestinian? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

Don't they understand that this constant cycle of revenge isn't solving anything?

How stupid can these people be? Even the USA has better ethnic-relations than this! For all our ethnic turmoil, at least we're not fighting all out literal wars for "ownership" of the country! We seem to at least have some semblance of co-existence.

GROW UP, ISSAC & ISHMAEL! I DON'T CARE WHO STARTED IT OR WHO'S RIGHT OR WRONG! GROW THE FRICKIN' HELL UP, YA BIG BABIES!

How about reach out to each other in love & forgiveness, burying the hatchet, Palestinians welcomed by Israelis as equal citizens & regarding The Holyland as equally Israeli & Palestinian? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

Don't they understand that this constant cycle of revenge isn't solving anything?

How stupid can these people be? Even the USA has better ethnic-relations than this! For all our ethnic turmoil, at least we're not fighting all out literal wars for "ownership" of the country! We seem to at least have some semblance of co-existence.

GROW UP, ISSAC & ISHMAEL! I DON'T CARE WHO STARTED IT OR WHO'S RIGHT OR WRONG! GROW THE FRICKIN' HELL UP, YA BIG BABIES!

There are plenty of reasonable people on both sides. The problem is the fanatics. Ask Yitzhak Rabin.